<PRE><B>Question 210186</B>
A gardener has planted a rectangular garden that measures 8 feet by 5 feet.
 He has ordered 1 cubic yard (27 feet) of stones for a border along the outside of the garden. 
If the border needs to be 4 inches deep and he wants to use all of the stones,
 how wide should the border be?
:
Find the area of the border using 27 cu/ft of material
4 inches = {{{1/3}}} ft
27 ft divided by {{{1/3}}} = 81 sq/ft
:
Area of the garden: 8 * 5 = 40 sq/ft
:
Let x = width of the border
:
Overall area
(2x+8)*(2x+5) = 4x^2 + 10x + 16x + 40 = 4x^2 + 26x + 40 sq/ft
:
Overall area - garden area = border area
(4x^2 + 26x + 40) - 40 = 81
:
4x^2 + 26x - 81 = 0
:
Use the quadratic formula: a=4; b=26; c=-81
:
You should get a positive solution: x = 2.30 ft, is the width of the border</PRE>